UP On GAME Presents Conversations With A Legend with LaVar Arrington. Arrington talks with NFL Legend from the 'Greatest Show On Turf' Torry Holt in this best-of-edition episode. There are NFL Legends in the game who have some of the worse-looking fingers you have ever seen. So, how did these alpha men get these "BAD FINGERS?" One of the best receivers in the NFL, Torry Holt, describes how he received his "BAD FINGERS." Could Torry Holt play in today's NFL? When did Holt know he could play in the NFL? And, what was his motivation to make it in the NFL?
Then, Up On Game Co-host and NFL Legend TJ Houshmandzadeh joins LaVar to discuss "You will not outwork me!" To this day, TJ Houshmandzadeh's mindset has not changed. In this episode, listen as TJ and LaVar talk about TJ's past life experiences, and those experiences are being passed down to the kids he mentors. When was the moment TJ knew he could play in the NFL? How did getting shot at change his perspective on life?
UP On GAME Presents Conversations With A Legend. LaVar Arrington is sitting down with the best from the field, the stage, and beyond. These are intimate conversations and storytelling with legendary humans about their lives and successful careers.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Love The.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Game presents conversations with the legends, best of show. And
now here's LeVar Arrington.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
And welcome everybody back to another exciting edition of up On.
Game presents the conversations with the legends, and we do.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Continue the party. The party is continuing on.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
We got my man, big play, Tory Hope in the building.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
What it do?
Speaker 3 (00:31):
What up?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
What up?
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Man?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
How are you bro?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Thanks man, thanks for coming on. Obviously, Tory Holt is
a tremendous receiver. He played at NC State play for
the Greatest Show on Turf with the Saint Louis Rams.
Should be in the Hall of Fame. It's taken a
little while, too too long, but let's hope we get
there soon and get that done knocked out. As as
(00:57):
we talk, people will see you use your hands, all right, Yeah,
and you never dropped the ball, that's right. And we're
gonna touch into the We're gonna touch into this because
I got mine, right, I got I got the pinky, right,
I got it. You know I got both of them
that they out of there, right, give me the best
(01:18):
story connected to how your fingers got to where they are, right?
Is it just pure? Just the way you was grabbing
and squeezing the ball. Is there saying there was you
stubbing it?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Like?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Were you spraining them? How did you get to.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
The point of where yours is turning like doing tricks
the way that they're doing on your hands?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Player, right, if you go back, if I go back
to the history of my hand, it started in college.
All right, I'm probably dislocated every one of my fingers
when I was in college at least twice two a
few times. The reputation my health report when I was
coming out of school of ar You know how string
it is that health report is, Yes, was hey, this
(01:59):
guy has bad fingers, And folks were not understanding how
I was catching the football because of my my hands
were so uh just they just susceptible. Yeah, you know,
that's that's one of the knocks. That was one of
the knocks on my.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
On my health history.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
But what I used to do to combat that is
I used to use the puddy a lot, and I
still have my puddy now that I use. I did
fingertip push up to a lot. I caught the ball
a lot to get my hands used to the velocity
of a ball, catching the ball out of the jug machines,
or trying to or catching John Elway or Dan Marino
or Kirk Warn or Britt Barber's balls, or even even
(02:38):
Mike Vick. You gotta have some strong ass hands. So
so I did all those things to try to strengthen
my hands so I could so I could sustain and play.
But how it started this hand? Here man two thousand
and five was playing Pittsburgh still in five two thousand
and five or six, remember being a Thursday night game,
rolled up in the Saint Louis. I mean it was
charged up in Saint Louis, and Marshall's in like twenty
(03:00):
eight twenty nine toss or whatever something, twenty nine toss.
And here I am on the perimeter blocking start block,
and I got him to Lebar. I got him right
where I needed. Marshall's gonna make a cut off off
of how I have him positioning block, and he went
to get away to shun Townsend, went to get away,
and my finger got caught in the got called in
(03:21):
the jersey yo and and it popped out. I popped
it back in, ran up to the sideline, taped it
back up, went back out and played. So I just
kept playing with the injury, and then over time and
practice will pop out, popping back in, and then the
ligaments just started to chat out, stretching out. So now
I have no ligaments and now it's a natural curve
to my left, which is uh, which is.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Something I have to deal with.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
It's still functional, right right, It's just it's just stretched out.
It's just stretched out. It just dressed out from the game.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yo.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
So that's how that's happened. That's that's the story behind them,
all right. Now here's now here's the next question.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
If you had to have that finger ten times out
of ten times to have the career that you did,
are you taking the figure or do you want the
straight finger?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
No, I'm taking them taking the figure. That's what people say.
I'm taking the finger, yo. That's that was the one
that was the that was kind of you know, the
era in which I was ushered into the national Indeed,
you know cats play yo. You know we watched Jack
young Blood and then play with broke legs, right and
lotting them cut fingers off? What indeed, that's what you
you know you play the game. We tough boys, right, yes,
(04:28):
apples you know.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I want all right?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
So so I need people to understand that greatness isn't
in a video game, right, correct, Greatness isn't. I woke up.
I saw it on the video game. I saw it
on YouTube. TikTok. I'm going to school today. I'm gonna
be great because some strange reason, these young boys think
that success is in their imagination, and it's not with
(04:56):
the action of what's in their imagination anymore. How can
you I recall my imagination taking me to different places,
but it was from a humble beginning pulling tobacco, I mean,
or like you're saying, proud moment from that to where
you are. What's going through Tory Holt's mind while he's
pulling tobacco.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
That I'm getting out of this town. I'm getting out
of this thing I'm getting I'm going for my dreams.
This is just my way to that. And pulling tobacco
tough in my fabric.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Yo.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
It humbled me because I was working for someone else
and providing goods for their people, only to make five
dollars an hour. But I was getting strong hands, I
was getting strong forearms. I was developing the work ethic,
I was developing a drive. I was seeing I was
developing a passion. I was visualizing my goals and my
dreams beyond the tobacco field, which I knew will propelled
(05:53):
me to what it was that I wanted to get to.
I just had to go through it. Having thee with worth,
all the mindset at a young age to endure that
kind of pain, to endure some of that, to have
the humility to go and pull someone else's tobacco. It's
what I'm most proud of, man. And for me to
get a fair of clicks, I had to go pull
(06:14):
a tobacco. For me to have some school clothes, I
had to during the school year, I had to play
football on Friday nights and get up the next morning.
My cousin Wayman and I went and start the store
up at Windy's at the truck stop off the off
off of the Highway off eighty five. This is after
a football game that I've probably played the entire game.
He and my cousin and I. But I got to
(06:36):
get up at five o'clock to be ready to open
the store up at six because we got customers coming
in and he and I are opening the store and
getting the store uperating, operating and running while everybody else
make their way in. It was those kind of moments, man,
that's gotten me to where I am now. And what
makes me humble, have a have a level of humility,
(06:57):
empathy for people and things around me, and and and
respect for what I do have and what others have
and what others are doing.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Is that your legacy? What's what story holds legacy? What?
Speaker 3 (07:10):
What do you want that today they burying you and
and catch is gonna come talk about you?
Speaker 1 (07:16):
What?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
What will have you smiling to hear them say that.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
That he was, that he was consistent, that he was passionate,
that he was versatile, and a lot of things. It
wasn't just sports. He was versatile in a lot of things.
Cared about his friends, cared about his family, and and
and and love athletics, love athletic all kinds of athletics, football, basketball, golf, soccer, hockey,
(07:47):
whatever the case may be. That's and then lastly, obviously,
what I've been able to create, my brother and I
have been able to create off of the football field.
Going from the playing fields and having success, great deal
with success, potential, hall of fame success, get it two.
Transitioning off the football field and running a business. Yeah,
(08:12):
and business that had had success over over ten years.
That's and then my wife and my kids. Man, that's
that's my legacy. LeVar Dough Dough, Yes, sir, you got
anything else that? Yeah. If you want to learn more
about Whole Brothers Foundation, go to Whole Breath. Go to
Hope Brothers Foundation dot org. If you want to learn
(08:33):
more about Hope Brothers Foundation. We support young kids with
a parent of Guardian's balance cancer. Go to Hope Brothers
Foundation dot org. We are welcoming donations and we're doing
positive things with our young youth.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
I'm LeVar Arrington and this week's guess, Well, it's pretty
interesting one because.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Well we work together. The best guests of all. We
have TJ.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Hitchman's atta from Moregan State and raised in California on
the playgrounds is where he spent most of his days
chilling out, max and relax and all that good stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And then one day, oh no, that's different. That was
the fresh principal there. But this is t J.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Huschmansauta played for the Cincinnati Bengals pro bowler.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
What's up, bro? What's going on? Man? Man? What's happen?
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Man? I'm glad you asked me to be on my pleasure, brother,
my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
When talking about those things that you do and and
tying that into okay, you do media, which means you
understand what what Having a message and having an idea
of what it is that you represent play a major
part of who you are. When you're having those conversations
with the guys that you're your training and getting them
(09:47):
ready for for the combine and getting them ready to
play in the league, do you do you ever talk
to them about moments like not not letting a day
pass or not wasting a moment, And if so, do
you have a moment in your life where you can
(10:07):
draw from that says you know what I've been through this.
The reason why I'm so passionate about the things that
I do is because I had this type of experience,
this type of moment, and it led to me being
able to achieve and do the things that I've been
able to do that now have led for the opportunity
(10:28):
to be able to talk to you guys about what
it is you need to be thinking about what it
is you need to be doing as you move forward
in your life.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Well, let's talk about the guys that I work with,
we talk about moments often, and what I tell them
is this, and you were guilty of it, as was I.
We take moments for granted when you're in the moment
(10:57):
in your playing and you're going through the process, and
I tell a man like y'all need to cherish this.
Don't be such in a rush to get to the
end that you don't enjoy the process that got you
to the end. And I can remember my first mini
camp practice after we got I can still remember that,
(11:18):
and it's over Cherish it, enjoy it. But for me,
I don't know if I had one moment, LeVar, it's
I wasn't a guy that played sports growing up like
a lot of guys did. I wasn't a guy that
dreamed of playing in the NFL like a lot of
guys did. I made it, and I'm grateful for that.
(11:41):
I'm fortunate. But it wasn't a dream of mine. I
wasn't because it wasn't realistic. I wasn't a high school
All American.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Why wasn't it? But why wasn't it realistic? Like when
did it turn to I can do this in football?
Like when did football become When did it become a thing.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
When I felt like I really can do something with
it was when I was in junior college. I played
one year in high school football. One year I was
a running back. I thought I was the best player
on the team. The coach thought I was like the
fifth or sixth best player on the team. And I'm like, well,
don't know what the fuck he looking at? Right, And
so it wasn't realistic. I went to junior college. I
(12:22):
was third stream. Thought I was the best. I'm like,
what the fuck are the coaches looking at? These dudes
ain't not better than me? And my best friend to
this day, he was a starter. He got hurt, the
backup got arrested. I started. I was third stream. Started
the first game because of what happened. First played the game,
I bombed somebody for like seventy touchdown.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
And after my first season of junior college, the head coach,
Frank Mazolda at Srito's College, he comes to me and
was like, make sure you're going to school. Make sure
you're doing what you're supposed to do, because you're going
to get out of here with a scholarship. I didn't
graduate from high school and he's telling me to make
sure I go to school. I'm like, make sure I
go to school. I didn't go to school in high school,
(13:06):
you think in college. And when he told me that,
that could be my moment because I buckled down. I
went to school and I did what needed to be done.
And I'm not a dummy by any means. I just
I didn't want to go to school. So in high
school I didn't go. Football was over, I was on
(13:29):
the basketball team. They kicked me off the basketball team
for grades. I said, if I can't play basketball, why
I'm going to school for it. So I stopped going.
And so after that first year of Crito's that probably
was my mama where I was, I probably can make it.
I can do somewh with myself, and I buckled down
and started to apply myself the way I should have
(13:50):
when I was younger.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
How do you think do you think that maybe you
might have appreciated it a little differently? I mean some
may say more, but do you think that when you
got the opportunity to go to Oregon State and and
continue playing and ultimately getting getting the opportunity to play
(14:13):
at the National Football League level, do you feel like
not having it, not playing it, having different you know,
different priorities, different things that you were focused then on?
Speaker 1 (14:25):
How much of how much of that.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Played into your approach to the game, because those who
have ever watched you play know that, like you're a
super passionate dude in the way that you play. You're
the same dude in everyday life, like you're laid back dude,
but you're super passionate about everything you do. So so
(14:47):
how did that translate into I'm actually going to get
an opportunity to play at a at.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
A bigger school? You know? How? How how is TJ
approaching that?
Speaker 4 (14:59):
I mean, for me, the fact and we'll never know,
but the fact that I didn't play coming up to
this day, like I love football to this day, Like
I'm watching every game that's on TV.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
It doesn't matter who it is.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
It can be Division fifteen, if it's on TV, I'm
going to watch it.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
I just have a.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Love for the game of football and how I played
my entire life like a lot of guys did. I
don't know if that would be there, we will never know,
but I really enjoy the game of football. I believe
I was talented mentally and physically, and I think that
mental part. Kind of people gloss over that because you
(15:43):
can't see how talented the guy is mentally. And I
believe I was talented mentally, and that's why I'm able
to mentor the kids that I am.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
And we go over life, we go.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
Over football, but you're gonna be living life longer than
you play football, So we're gonna go over life longer
than we go over football. But yeah, I just for
me coming from where I come from. My mama got
folk kids. The only one of them graduated from high school,
the youngest one, and so we grew up to where
(16:19):
I mean, when I was thirteen years old, I did
whatever I wanted to do. I came home when I
wanted to come home. I was out all parts of
the night into the morning when I was thirteen, and
so I was forced to grow up a lot sooner.
Like when I look at my kids at thirteen, to
(16:41):
think how they were and how I was, I couldn't
imagine them being out till two three in the morning
like I was at thirteen.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
But what was you doing?
Speaker 4 (16:56):
I was just in the streets, hustling. Man. You're around
older people and the things that they do, and the
things that they have you want to do and you
want them.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
For yourselves, and so you just start.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
There's a couple of dudes, they take a liking to you,
and they kind of show you the way, and I
followed along, and it was just something that it was
normal if you grew.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Up in the hood.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
What you see the older guys do that. They got
the nice cars, they got the pretty women. You want that.
And so I was just in the hood, just just hustling.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Never never really.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Thought about any consequences or anything like that, because it
was that was just normal for me. That was normal,
like waked up, the sun's going to be out. That's normal.
And luckily enough, I didn't get in it deep enough
to where I'm not talking to you.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Now, when you was out there, how does that translate
into sports and athletics? How did you develop talent or
know that you had a talent to play?
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Like?
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Where did that come from? Did it happen during this time?
Speaker 1 (18:04):
When? When did that happen?
Speaker 4 (18:08):
One, I've always been an overly confident person. I truly
believe in myself. I have self belief, maybe unrealistic, but
I have it. Anything that I do I'm competing. And
we played checkers, we played connect for we played chess,
which I don't know how to play, but if I did,
(18:28):
i'd probably be the best once I learned it. It
will that I've always been super competitive. Now the sports thing, obviously,
we watch sports when it's on TV.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
You watch it.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
And I've always been athletic. I was always fast. I
didn't get slow till I got to the NFL.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Mysteriously. I was a fast.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Kid my entire life, and then I got to the
league and they dubbed me slow. But sports was something
that I always light. But you can't play sports if
you're not going to school, and so it was something
that I wasn't able to do because I wasn't I
wasn't a student really, like, so you.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Weren't developing skill through the years. You just played cold turkey.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Yeah, like straight up and down. Like I didn't four
years of high school. I went probably two and a
half years of school of like school school. My sophomore year,
I didn't go at all, and so I wasn't in school.
You couldn't play if you're not in school, and so
but I was always fast and explosives. And now you
(19:37):
know because it it would be dudes that ran track
and we would race like grow okay, so we raised,
we would race each other, Okay. I was always one of,
if not the fastest. And then you know, we played
recreational basketball. I'm doing all kind off, okay, And so
I knew that, but it just I couldn't play like
(19:59):
I never get.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Man. All my homeboys that I grew up with, man.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
They high school graduation and shit, and so they graduate.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
I go to the graduation.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
I'm just watching and we are supposed to graduate with them,
but I'm just watching it. They all leave and go
to grad night. I'm like, oh fuck, I'm about to
be bored. I had none to do. I couldn't go
to grad night and just doing little things like that. Man,
I missed out on so many things, but it made
me who I am because of being out there in
(20:31):
them streets at such an early age. It's survival of
the fittest, and so you can be taking advantage of
if you're not with the right people or you just
don't understand how things go. And luckily for me, like
I said, I made it out.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
And did you have a moment during that time that
that was like this, ain't it?
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Oh yeah, man, there's some some stories, bro, like we
never talked about me. It's funny. Me and my brother
was just talking about this. I got a younger brother,
but he was always bigger than me. He's two years
younger than me, but he was always bigger than me,
and he's still bigger than me to this day.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Had a little problem and.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
Had a group of people that didn't like me for
whatever reason, but my brother was cool with him, and
so they kind.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Of rolled up on me.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
There's some things that like they shot at me, and
I was pissed, and so I told my brother and
he handled it for me. And he's younger than me,
and so that moment was like I just looked back
at certain things, like, fuck, I got so lucky, man,
(21:42):
with so many different instances of that I'm able to
talk to you.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Fuck.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
I remember watching you and Penn State in the all
white uniforms jump over people, and now, yeah, I mean,
but for you and even Plexico, y'all been anointed, I
would say, since you're at least fifteen, right, maybe younger
right at fifteen, This was the furthest thing from my mind.
(22:09):
And this is what me and you talk about. I
try to tell these kids, like, you can be the
best right now, LeVar, you can be the worst right
now me and you can still make it. It's up
to you. You decide what you're gonna become.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
It's up to you. So you don't think that success
is by accident.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
No, no, Like I'll be honest with you, man, Once
I started playing football and all that street shit, I'm done.
I'm done and it's still in me. But I'm not
doing that. I'm not doing that, no man. People will
tell you, man, I will kill myself trying to get better.
(22:55):
Like we work out, I'm not letting you outwork me.
One of us are gonna quit, and it's not gonna
be me. And so when I work, I'm going to work.
I'm not gonna let you outwork me. And to think
it is I could have worked harder and I didn't
do all I could have done. But no by accident.
(23:15):
Hell knows, success is not by action. That you gotta
work and go get it.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
So and working to go get it.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Do you feel like when you're talking to the guys
that you're mentoring and that you're training and you're preparing,
do you feel like they can grasp the concepts that
you put in front of them. Because today's young cats
are they a little different? Man? Like, there's still some
dogs out there, and there's still some cats that have
(23:44):
gone through some things, but largely in part, this is
a very different type of generation of young guys. So
how do you how do you approach these conversations? Cause
can they even relate to what you've gone through?
Speaker 4 (24:03):
A lot of them, I don't even tell them what
I've gone through unless they ask me. I don't bring
it up. Some will look my story up and tell
me like, oh, man, I didn't know you graduated from
You didn't graduate from high school?
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Man, how'd you make it? And so then we start
to talk.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
But from the outset, I get to know them, and
you build a trust, and I just tell them, like,
everybody can play football, man, like you not the only
one that everybody can play? What's going to separate you?
What makes you any different than anybody else that wants
to play football? You may be slightly more talented, but
(24:43):
are you as tough? Are you as smart or smarter?
Are you willing to do things that others aren't willing
to do? And once they start to trust you. They
believe what you're telling them. In life, I started at
the bottom, made my way up. In the league, I
started at the bottom, I made my way up. In college,
(25:04):
I started at the bottom. I made my way up.
So I've been at the bottom and I've shown time
and time again that I can.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Work my way up.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
And so once they begin to trust me, they listening
to what I told The biggest ain't no punks like
we not gonna be a punk. We ain't gonna be
a bully, but we won't be a punk. And to me,
that's the biggest kid sports. You're getting that locker room,
you twenty one shit, you gotta dudes thirty five. They
gonna try to punk you the first day, and you
(25:33):
show them now, ain't no bitching me, Bro,
Love The.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Game presents conversations with the legends, best of show. And
now here's LeVar Arrington.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
And welcome everybody back to another exciting edition of up On.
Game presents the conversations with the legends, and we do.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Continue the party. The party is continuing on.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
We got my man, big play, Tory Hope in the building.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
What it do?
Speaker 3 (00:31):
What up?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
What up?
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Man?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
How are you bro?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Thanks man, thanks for coming on. Obviously, Tory Holt is
a tremendous receiver. He played at NC State play for
the Greatest Show on Turf with the Saint Louis Rams.
Should be in the Hall of Fame. It's taken a
little while, too too long, but let's hope we get
there soon and get that done knocked out. As as
(00:57):
we talk, people will see you use your hands, all right, Yeah,
and you never dropped the ball, that's right. And we're
gonna touch into the We're gonna touch into this because
I got mine, right, I got I got the pinky, right,
I got it. You know I got both of them
that they out of there, right, give me the best
(01:18):
story connected to how your fingers got to where they are, right?
Is it just pure? Just the way you was grabbing
and squeezing the ball. Is there saying there was you
stubbing it?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Like?
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Were you spraining them? How did you get to.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
The point of where yours is turning like doing tricks
the way that they're doing on your hands?
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Player, right, if you go back, if I go back
to the history of my hand, it started in college.
All right, I'm probably dislocated every one of my fingers
when I was in college at least twice two a
few times. The reputation my health report when I was
coming out of school of ar You know how string
it is that health report is, Yes, was hey, this
(01:59):
guy has bad fingers, And folks were not understanding how
I was catching the football because of my my hands
were so uh just they just susceptible. Yeah, you know,
that's that's one of the knocks. That was one of
the knocks on my.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
On my health history.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
But what I used to do to combat that is
I used to use the puddy a lot, and I
still have my puddy now that I use. I did
fingertip push up to a lot. I caught the ball
a lot to get my hands used to the velocity
of a ball, catching the ball out of the jug machines,
or trying to or catching John Elway or Dan Marino
or Kirk Warn or Britt Barber's balls, or even even
(02:38):
Mike Vick. You gotta have some strong ass hands. So
so I did all those things to try to strengthen
my hands so I could so I could sustain and play.
But how it started this hand? Here man two thousand
and five was playing Pittsburgh still in five two thousand
and five or six, remember being a Thursday night game,
rolled up in the Saint Louis. I mean it was
charged up in Saint Louis, and Marshall's in like twenty
(03:00):
eight twenty nine toss or whatever something, twenty nine toss.
And here I am on the perimeter blocking start block,
and I got him to Lebar. I got him right
where I needed. Marshall's gonna make a cut off off
of how I have him positioning block, and he went
to get away to shun Townsend, went to get away,
and my finger got caught in the got called in
(03:21):
the jersey yo and and it popped out. I popped
it back in, ran up to the sideline, taped it
back up, went back out and played. So I just
kept playing with the injury, and then over time and
practice will pop out, popping back in, and then the
ligaments just started to chat out, stretching out. So now
I have no ligaments and now it's a natural curve
to my left, which is uh, which is.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Something I have to deal with.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
It's still functional, right right, It's just it's just stretched out.
It's just stretched out. It just dressed out from the game.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yo.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
So that's how that's happened. That's that's the story behind them,
all right. Now here's now here's the next question.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
If you had to have that finger ten times out
of ten times to have the career that you did,
are you taking the figure or do you want the
straight finger?
Speaker 2 (04:05):
No, I'm taking them taking the figure. That's what people say.
I'm taking the finger, yo. That's that was the one
that was the that was kind of you know, the
era in which I was ushered into the national Indeed,
you know cats play yo. You know we watched Jack
young Blood and then play with broke legs, right and
lotting them cut fingers off? What indeed, that's what you
you know you play the game. We tough boys, right, yes,
(04:28):
apples you know.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I want all right?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
So so I need people to understand that greatness isn't
in a video game, right, correct, Greatness isn't. I woke up.
I saw it on the video game. I saw it
on YouTube. TikTok. I'm going to school today. I'm gonna
be great because some strange reason, these young boys think
that success is in their imagination, and it's not with
(04:56):
the action of what's in their imagination anymore. How can
you I recall my imagination taking me to different places,
but it was from a humble beginning pulling tobacco, I mean,
or like you're saying, proud moment from that to where
you are. What's going through Tory Holt's mind while he's
pulling tobacco.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
That I'm getting out of this town. I'm getting out
of this thing I'm getting I'm going for my dreams.
This is just my way to that. And pulling tobacco
tough in my fabric.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Yo.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
It humbled me because I was working for someone else
and providing goods for their people, only to make five
dollars an hour. But I was getting strong hands, I
was getting strong forearms. I was developing the work ethic,
I was developing a drive. I was seeing I was
developing a passion. I was visualizing my goals and my
dreams beyond the tobacco field, which I knew will propelled
(05:53):
me to what it was that I wanted to get to.
I just had to go through it. Having thee with worth,
all the mindset at a young age to endure that
kind of pain, to endure some of that, to have
the humility to go and pull someone else's tobacco. It's
what I'm most proud of, man. And for me to
get a fair of clicks, I had to go pull
(06:14):
a tobacco. For me to have some school clothes, I
had to during the school year, I had to play
football on Friday nights and get up the next morning.
My cousin Wayman and I went and start the store
up at Windy's at the truck stop off the off
off of the Highway off eighty five. This is after
a football game that I've probably played the entire game.
He and my cousin and I. But I got to
(06:36):
get up at five o'clock to be ready to open
the store up at six because we got customers coming
in and he and I are opening the store and
getting the store uperating, operating and running while everybody else
make their way in. It was those kind of moments, man,
that's gotten me to where I am now. And what
makes me humble, have a have a level of humility,
(06:57):
empathy for people and things around me, and and and
respect for what I do have and what others have
and what others are doing.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Is that your legacy? What's what story holds legacy? What?
Speaker 3 (07:10):
What do you want that today they burying you and
and catch is gonna come talk about you?
Speaker 1 (07:16):
What?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
What will have you smiling to hear them say that.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
That he was, that he was consistent, that he was passionate,
that he was versatile, and a lot of things. It
wasn't just sports. He was versatile in a lot of things.
Cared about his friends, cared about his family, and and
and and love athletics, love athletic all kinds of athletics, football, basketball, golf, soccer, hockey,
(07:47):
whatever the case may be. That's and then lastly, obviously,
what I've been able to create, my brother and I
have been able to create off of the football field.
Going from the playing fields and having success, great deal
with success, potential, hall of fame success, get it two.
Transitioning off the football field and running a business. Yeah,
(08:12):
and business that had had success over over ten years.
That's and then my wife and my kids. Man, that's
that's my legacy. LeVar Dough Dough, Yes, sir, you got
anything else that? Yeah. If you want to learn more
about Whole Brothers Foundation, go to Whole Breath. Go to
Hope Brothers Foundation dot org. If you want to learn
(08:33):
more about Hope Brothers Foundation. We support young kids with
a parent of Guardian's balance cancer. Go to Hope Brothers
Foundation dot org. We are welcoming donations and we're doing
positive things with our young youth.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
I'm LeVar Arrington and this week's guess, Well, it's pretty
interesting one because.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
Well we work together. The best guests of all. We
have TJ.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Hitchman's atta from Moregan State and raised in California on
the playgrounds is where he spent most of his days
chilling out, max and relax and all that good stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
And then one day, oh no, that's different. That was
the fresh principal there. But this is t J.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
Huschmansauta played for the Cincinnati Bengals pro bowler.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
What's up, bro? What's going on? Man? Man? What's happen?
Speaker 4 (09:19):
Man? I'm glad you asked me to be on my pleasure, brother,
my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (09:24):
When talking about those things that you do and and
tying that into okay, you do media, which means you
understand what what Having a message and having an idea
of what it is that you represent play a major
part of who you are. When you're having those conversations
with the guys that you're your training and getting them
(09:47):
ready for for the combine and getting them ready to
play in the league, do you do you ever talk
to them about moments like not not letting a day
pass or not wasting a moment, And if so, do
you have a moment in your life where you can
(10:07):
draw from that says you know what I've been through this.
The reason why I'm so passionate about the things that
I do is because I had this type of experience,
this type of moment, and it led to me being
able to achieve and do the things that I've been
able to do that now have led for the opportunity
(10:28):
to be able to talk to you guys about what
it is you need to be thinking about what it
is you need to be doing as you move forward
in your life.
Speaker 4 (10:37):
Well, let's talk about the guys that I work with,
we talk about moments often, and what I tell them
is this, and you were guilty of it, as was I.
We take moments for granted when you're in the moment
(10:57):
in your playing and you're going through the process, and
I tell a man like y'all need to cherish this.
Don't be such in a rush to get to the
end that you don't enjoy the process that got you
to the end. And I can remember my first mini
camp practice after we got I can still remember that,
(11:18):
and it's over Cherish it, enjoy it. But for me,
I don't know if I had one moment, LeVar, it's
I wasn't a guy that played sports growing up like
a lot of guys did. I wasn't a guy that
dreamed of playing in the NFL like a lot of
guys did. I made it, and I'm grateful for that.
(11:41):
I'm fortunate. But it wasn't a dream of mine. I
wasn't because it wasn't realistic. I wasn't a high school
All American.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Why wasn't it? But why wasn't it realistic? Like when
did it turn to I can do this in football?
Like when did football become When did it become a thing.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
When I felt like I really can do something with
it was when I was in junior college. I played
one year in high school football. One year I was
a running back. I thought I was the best player
on the team. The coach thought I was like the
fifth or sixth best player on the team. And I'm like, well,
don't know what the fuck he looking at? Right, And
so it wasn't realistic. I went to junior college. I
(12:22):
was third stream. Thought I was the best. I'm like,
what the fuck are the coaches looking at? These dudes
ain't not better than me? And my best friend to
this day, he was a starter. He got hurt, the
backup got arrested. I started. I was third stream. Started
the first game because of what happened. First played the game,
I bombed somebody for like seventy touchdown.
Speaker 1 (12:44):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (12:44):
And after my first season of junior college, the head coach,
Frank Mazolda at Srito's College, he comes to me and
was like, make sure you're going to school. Make sure
you're doing what you're supposed to do, because you're going
to get out of here with a scholarship. I didn't
graduate from high school and he's telling me to make
sure I go to school. I'm like, make sure I
go to school. I didn't go to school in high school,
(13:06):
you think in college. And when he told me that,
that could be my moment because I buckled down. I
went to school and I did what needed to be done.
And I'm not a dummy by any means. I just
I didn't want to go to school. So in high
school I didn't go. Football was over, I was on
(13:29):
the basketball team. They kicked me off the basketball team
for grades. I said, if I can't play basketball, why
I'm going to school for it. So I stopped going.
And so after that first year of Crito's that probably
was my mama where I was, I probably can make it.
I can do somewh with myself, and I buckled down
and started to apply myself the way I should have
(13:50):
when I was younger.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
How do you think do you think that maybe you
might have appreciated it a little differently? I mean some
may say more, but do you think that when you
got the opportunity to go to Oregon State and and
continue playing and ultimately getting getting the opportunity to play
(14:13):
at the National Football League level, do you feel like
not having it, not playing it, having different you know,
different priorities, different things that you were focused then on?
Speaker 1 (14:25):
How much of how much of that.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Played into your approach to the game, because those who
have ever watched you play know that, like you're a
super passionate dude in the way that you play. You're
the same dude in everyday life, like you're laid back dude,
but you're super passionate about everything you do. So so
(14:47):
how did that translate into I'm actually going to get
an opportunity to play at a at.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
A bigger school? You know? How? How how is TJ
approaching that?
Speaker 4 (14:59):
I mean, for me, the fact and we'll never know,
but the fact that I didn't play coming up to
this day, like I love football to this day, Like
I'm watching every game that's on TV.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
It doesn't matter who it is.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
It can be Division fifteen, if it's on TV, I'm
going to watch it.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
I just have a.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Love for the game of football and how I played
my entire life like a lot of guys did. I
don't know if that would be there, we will never know,
but I really enjoy the game of football. I believe
I was talented mentally and physically, and I think that
mental part. Kind of people gloss over that because you
(15:43):
can't see how talented the guy is mentally. And I
believe I was talented mentally, and that's why I'm able
to mentor the kids that I am.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
And we go over life, we go.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
Over football, but you're gonna be living life longer than
you play football, So we're gonna go over life longer
than we go over football. But yeah, I just for
me coming from where I come from. My mama got
folk kids. The only one of them graduated from high school,
the youngest one, and so we grew up to where
(16:19):
I mean, when I was thirteen years old, I did
whatever I wanted to do. I came home when I
wanted to come home. I was out all parts of
the night into the morning when I was thirteen, and
so I was forced to grow up a lot sooner.
Like when I look at my kids at thirteen, to
(16:41):
think how they were and how I was, I couldn't
imagine them being out till two three in the morning
like I was at thirteen.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
But what was you doing?
Speaker 4 (16:56):
I was just in the streets, hustling. Man. You're around
older people and the things that they do, and the
things that they have you want to do and you
want them.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
For yourselves, and so you just start.
Speaker 4 (17:09):
There's a couple of dudes, they take a liking to you,
and they kind of show you the way, and I
followed along, and it was just something that it was
normal if you grew.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
Up in the hood.
Speaker 4 (17:20):
What you see the older guys do that. They got
the nice cars, they got the pretty women. You want that.
And so I was just in the hood, just just hustling.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
Never never really.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Thought about any consequences or anything like that, because it
was that was just normal for me. That was normal,
like waked up, the sun's going to be out. That's normal.
And luckily enough, I didn't get in it deep enough
to where I'm not talking to you.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Now, when you was out there, how does that translate
into sports and athletics? How did you develop talent or
know that you had a talent to play?
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Like?
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Where did that come from? Did it happen during this time?
Speaker 1 (18:04):
When? When did that happen?
Speaker 4 (18:08):
One, I've always been an overly confident person. I truly
believe in myself. I have self belief, maybe unrealistic, but
I have it. Anything that I do I'm competing. And
we played checkers, we played connect for we played chess,
which I don't know how to play, but if I did,
(18:28):
i'd probably be the best once I learned it. It
will that I've always been super competitive. Now the sports thing, obviously,
we watch sports when it's on TV.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
You watch it.
Speaker 4 (18:44):
And I've always been athletic. I was always fast. I
didn't get slow till I got to the NFL.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Mysteriously. I was a fast.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
Kid my entire life, and then I got to the
league and they dubbed me slow. But sports was something
that I always light. But you can't play sports if
you're not going to school, and so it was something
that I wasn't able to do because I wasn't I
wasn't a student really, like, so you.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Weren't developing skill through the years. You just played cold turkey.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Yeah, like straight up and down. Like I didn't four
years of high school. I went probably two and a
half years of school of like school school. My sophomore year,
I didn't go at all, and so I wasn't in school.
You couldn't play if you're not in school, and so
but I was always fast and explosives. And now you
(19:37):
know because it it would be dudes that ran track
and we would race like grow okay, so we raised,
we would race each other, Okay. I was always one of,
if not the fastest. And then you know, we played
recreational basketball. I'm doing all kind off, okay, And so
I knew that, but it just I couldn't play like
(19:59):
I never get.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Man. All my homeboys that I grew up with, man.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
They high school graduation and shit, and so they graduate.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
I go to the graduation.
Speaker 4 (20:07):
I'm just watching and we are supposed to graduate with them,
but I'm just watching it. They all leave and go
to grad night. I'm like, oh fuck, I'm about to
be bored. I had none to do. I couldn't go
to grad night and just doing little things like that. Man,
I missed out on so many things, but it made
me who I am because of being out there in
(20:31):
them streets at such an early age. It's survival of
the fittest, and so you can be taking advantage of
if you're not with the right people or you just
don't understand how things go. And luckily for me, like
I said, I made it out.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
And did you have a moment during that time that
that was like this, ain't it?
Speaker 4 (20:55):
Oh yeah, man, there's some some stories, bro, like we
never talked about me. It's funny. Me and my brother
was just talking about this. I got a younger brother,
but he was always bigger than me. He's two years
younger than me, but he was always bigger than me,
and he's still bigger than me to this day.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Had a little problem and.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
Had a group of people that didn't like me for
whatever reason, but my brother was cool with him, and
so they kind.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Of rolled up on me.
Speaker 4 (21:22):
There's some things that like they shot at me, and
I was pissed, and so I told my brother and
he handled it for me. And he's younger than me,
and so that moment was like I just looked back
at certain things, like, fuck, I got so lucky, man,
(21:42):
with so many different instances of that I'm able to
talk to you.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Fuck.
Speaker 4 (21:48):
I remember watching you and Penn State in the all
white uniforms jump over people, and now, yeah, I mean,
but for you and even Plexico, y'all been anointed, I
would say, since you're at least fifteen, right, maybe younger
right at fifteen, This was the furthest thing from my mind.
(22:09):
And this is what me and you talk about. I
try to tell these kids, like, you can be the
best right now, LeVar, you can be the worst right
now me and you can still make it. It's up
to you. You decide what you're gonna become.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
It's up to you. So you don't think that success
is by accident.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
No, no, Like I'll be honest with you, man, Once
I started playing football and all that street shit, I'm done.
I'm done and it's still in me. But I'm not
doing that. I'm not doing that, no man. People will
tell you, man, I will kill myself trying to get better.
(22:55):
Like we work out, I'm not letting you outwork me.
One of us are gonna quit, and it's not gonna
be me. And so when I work, I'm going to work.
I'm not gonna let you outwork me. And to think
it is I could have worked harder and I didn't
do all I could have done. But no by accident.
(23:15):
Hell knows, success is not by action. That you gotta
work and go get it.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
So and working to go get it.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
Do you feel like when you're talking to the guys
that you're mentoring and that you're training and you're preparing,
do you feel like they can grasp the concepts that
you put in front of them. Because today's young cats
are they a little different? Man? Like, there's still some
dogs out there, and there's still some cats that have
(23:44):
gone through some things, but largely in part, this is
a very different type of generation of young guys. So
how do you how do you approach these conversations? Cause
can they even relate to what you've gone through?
Speaker 4 (24:03):
A lot of them, I don't even tell them what
I've gone through unless they ask me. I don't bring
it up. Some will look my story up and tell
me like, oh, man, I didn't know you graduated from
You didn't graduate from high school?
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Man, how'd you make it? And so then we start
to talk.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
But from the outset, I get to know them, and
you build a trust, and I just tell them, like,
everybody can play football, man, like you not the only
one that everybody can play? What's going to separate you?
What makes you any different than anybody else that wants
to play football? You may be slightly more talented, but
(24:43):
are you as tough? Are you as smart or smarter?
Are you willing to do things that others aren't willing
to do? And once they start to trust you. They
believe what you're telling them. In life, I started at
the bottom, made my way up. In the league, I
started at the bottom, I made my way up. In college,
(25:04):
I started at the bottom. I made my way up.
So I've been at the bottom and I've shown time
and time again that I can.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Work my way up.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
And so once they begin to trust me, they listening
to what I told The biggest ain't no punks like
we not gonna be a punk. We ain't gonna be
a bully, but we won't be a punk. And to me,
that's the biggest kid sports. You're getting that locker room,
you twenty one shit, you gotta dudes thirty five. They
gonna try to punk you the first day, and you
(25:33):
show them now, ain't no bitching me, Bro,
Hosts And Creators
LaVar Arrington
TJ Houshmandzadeh
Plaxico Burress
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